Slovo.ru: Baltic accent

2017 Vol. 8 №3

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Cultural Transfer and Etymology

DOI
10.5922/2225-5346-2017-3-3
Pages
60-66

Abstract

This article considers the synthesis of information transference in space and time and examines the etymology of Indo-European lexis. The author pays attention to the origin of the lexis connected with the ‘bear’ semantics. The bear taboo was developing against the background of information passed on from one tradition to another and of ideas imported within cultural transfer. The analysis reveals the original Indo-European root for ‘bear’, which was tabooed across different Indo-European traditions, including in Old English. The article shows that cultural transfer explains the fact that philosophical lexis originates from handicraft terms. Cultural transfer determines the choice of lexical transferences and creates new possibilities for topical vocabularies through demonstrating different paradigms of the structural exchange of knowledge. Transferences belong to the realm of transition from the concrete to the abstract and determine the evolutionary lines of historical semantics.

Reference

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